- published: 04 Mar 2016
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Homebase is a British home improvement store and garden centre, with 342 stores across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It is well known by its green and orange colour scheme. Together with its sister company Argos (with 750 stores), it forms part of Home Retail Group. Homebase recorded sales figures of £1.57 billion pounds for the last financial year (2009–10). Homebase made a profit of £41.2 million pounds for the year 2009–10.
Homebase was founded by Sainsbury's supermarket chain and Belgian retailer GB-Inno-BM in 1979 as Sainsbury's Homebase, to bring supermarket-style layout to the British DIY market. Its first store was in Croydon, opening on the Purley Way on 3 March 1981.
Homebase tripled in size in 1995 when it bought rival store group Texas Homecare from the Ladbroke Group plc. These stores were rebranded and converted to the Homebase format, beginning with the Longwell Green store in Bristol in February 1996, with the process being completed by 1999. In October 1999 Sainsbury's bought Hampden Group plc, the franchisee of 10 Homebase stores across Ireland.